It s been our way to bring people together, Hernandez says.
When COVID-19 began to spread across the U.S., Hernandez read the news about the dire lack of personal protective equipment in hospitals and health centers. He leveraged his Desert United network, and set up donation boxes for gloves, masks and other gear at four Home Depots around Palm Desert. Every day for over three months, he picked up a carload of PPE donations and delivered them to area hospitals, medical clinics and assisted living centers. Since I had all these resources, I wanted to really use that tool to help the community, he says. Hernandez also set up multiple blood drives.
How this California small-business owner came up with creative ways to help community during pandemic Andrea Kramar, USA TODAY
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Mario Hernandez appears as your average small business owner. He runs a small, family-run tile-care business in the Coachella Valley of Southern California – and has been doing so for over 30 years.
But when he s not driving from one home to the next restoring counters and floors, he s been coming up with solutions to some of his community s most pressing issues, including this year s pandemic. There s so much going on in this world with politics (and) COVID, Hernandez says. I choose to stay focused on my community.